fictionalrather

Fictionalrather is a neologism used in literary and media studies to describe a cognitive and interpretive tendency to privilege fictional frameworks over real-world explanations when making sense of events or phenomena.

Originating in online scholarly and fan discourse in the early 2020s, the term combines "fictional" with "rather" to signal a preference for the logic, rules, or outcomes found within a fictional world, rather than those derived from nonfictional evidence.

Definition and use: Fictionalrather is a descriptive label for practices such as applying a plot's internal logic to real situations, treating a fictional system of causality as if it existed, or preferring narrative coherence over empirical data in interpretation.

In practice, critics note fictionalrather in analyses of novels, film franchises, and fan communities, where readers produce meta-narratives that align real-world issues with in-universe dynamics or ethics, sometimes to the point of displacing conventional facts.

Reception and criticism: The concept raises questions about epistemology and the boundary between fiction and knowledge. Supporters view it as a useful heuristic for understanding narrative influence, while detractors warn it can reinscribe fictional biases into real-world reasoning. Related ideas include suspension of disbelief, worldbuilding, and counterfactual thinking.